Английский язык. Практикум для магистрантов факультета психологии

him that his behaviour is inappropriate so he won’t repeat it? In this conversation, X is the____; Y is the____; and Z is the____.

a) id; ego; superego;	c) superego; id; ego;
b) ego; id; superego;	d) id; superego; ego.

2) An assumption of the ____ approach to personality is that unconscious mental processes play a major role in determining

behaviour.
a) trait;	c) psychoanalytic;
b) behavioral;	d) humanistic.

3) Helen, a married woman, is strongly attracted to her physician. Her____decides that the only way Helen can see the doctor more often is to schedule more frequent physical exams.

a) id;	c) superego;
b) ego;	d) eros.

4) At home, Rebecca’s daughter is very polite, so Rebecca is horrified to discover that her daughter is rude at school. She suggests thattheteacherbeginrewardingherdaughterforbeingpolite.Rebecca is taking which approach to personality?

a) psychoanalytic;	c) humanistic;
b) behavioral;	d) trait.

5)Learningprocessesaremostcentraltowhichpersonalitytheory?

a) psychoanalytic;	c) cognitive;
b) trait;	d) behavioral.

6) Discuss in pairs or in small groups the following topics:

a)Personality definitions;

b)Sources of aggression;

c)Sources of depression;

d)Approaches to undestanding personality;

e)Personality by S. Freud.

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NATURE, NURTURE, and INTELLIGENCE

I

Externality vs. Internality

Are you the master of your fate?

Are the consequences of your behaviour under your personal controlordeterminedbyforcesoutsideofyourself?Inotherwords,do you believe that there is a causal relationship between your behaviour and its consequences? Think about it for a moment.

Julian Rotter, one of the most influential behaviorists in psychology history, proposed that individuals differ a great deal in where they place the responsibility for what happens to them.

When people interpret the consequences of their behaviour to be in thecontrolofluck,fate,orpowerfulothers,thisindicatesabeliefinwhat Rotter called «external locus of control» (locus simply means location). Conversly, he maintained that if people interpret their own behaviour andcharacteristicsasresponsibleforbehaviourconsequences,theyhave abeliefinan«internallocusofcontrol».Thistendencycanbeexplained from a social learning theory perspective. As a person develops from infancy through childhood, behaviours are learned because they are followed by some form of reinforcement. The reinforcement increases the child’s expectancy that a particular behaviour will produce the desired reinforcement. Rotter claimed that the totality of your specific learning experiences creates in you a generalized expectancy about whether reinforcement is internally or externally controlled.

«These generalized expectancies», Rotter wrote, will result in characteristic differences in behaviour in a situation culturally categorized as chance-determined vs. skill-determined. In other words, you have developed an internal or external interpretation of the consequences for your behaviour that will influence your future behaviour in almost all situations. Rotter believed that your locus of control, whether internal or internal, is an important part of who you are, a part of your personality.

Which do you think you are, internal or external? Rotter wanted to studydifferencesamongpeopleonthisdimensionand,ratherthansimply ask them, he developed a test that measures a person’s locus of control.

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Rotter called his test the «I-E Scale», which is the name it is known by to-day. One of the potential sources for the development of an external or internal orientation was suggested to be variations in parenting styles.

Styles of parenting were supposed by Rotter to be on obvious sourceforlearningtobeinternalorexternal.Hesuggestedthatparents who administer rewards and punishments to their children in ways that are unpredictable and inconsistent are likely to encourage the development of an external locus of control. Subsequent research showed that parents of externally oriented children have been found to be more authoritarian and restrictive. They do not allow their children much opportunity for personal control. Parents of children who are internals tend to be more affectionate, more consistent with discipline, and more concerned with teaching children to take responsibility for their actions (Davis and Phares, 1969).

Rotter also hypothesized that the dimension of internal-external locus of control is a relatively stable aspect of human personality across a wide variety of situations.The phrase «relatively stable» is used because a person’s locus of control can change under certain circumstances. Those who are externally oriented often will become internal when their profession places them in positions of greater authority and responsibility. People who are highly internally oriented may shift toward a more external focus during times of extreme stress and uncertainty. Moreover, it is possible for individuals to learn to be more internal, if given the opportunity. Although most of the research confirms the assumption that internals are better adjusted and more effective in life, in his later writings Rotter sounded a note of caution. Everyone, especially internals, must be attentive to the environment around them. If a person sets out to change a situation that is not changeable, frustration, disappointment, and depression are the potential outcomes. When forces outside of the individual are actually in control of behavioral consequences, the most realistic and healthy approach to take is one of an external orientation.

Tasks

1. Match the following definitions with the words given below.

a) externals;	b) internals;
c) social learning theory;	d) expectancy;	e) I-E Scale.

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1.Anticipating future

2.A test that measures a person’ locus of control

3.These people believe that what happens to them is controlled by their own efforts.

4.Behaviors are learned because they are followed by reinforcement.

5. These people believe that what happens to them is controlled by factors outside themselves.

2. Here are some items from Rotter’s I-E Scale. Which of them indicate externals/internals?

a)Many of the unhappy things in people’s lives are partly due to bad luck.

b)People’s misfortunes result from the mistakes they make.

a)Becoming a success is a matter of hard work; luck has little or nothing to do with it.

b)Getting a good job depends mainly on being in the right place at the right time.

a) Most people don’t realize the extent to which their lives are controlled by accidental happenings.

b) There is really no such thing as «luck.»

a)Sometimes I can’t understand how teachers arrive at the grades

I get.

b)There is a direct connection between how hard I study and the grades I get.

3. Match in pairs signs of an internal/external locus of control.

E-L	1) affectionate democratic parents	a) less confident children
I-L	2) authoritarian restrictive parents	b) responsible children

4. «In his later writtings Rotter sounded a note of caution». Why?

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II

Nature / Nurture Controversy

How much of our behaviour is the result of genetic make-up and how much is the result of the environment?

This «nature-nurture» question is one of the oldest and most enduring issues in psychology.

The idea that children inherit characteristics from their parents is widely held in our society. Not only do people accept that parents pass their physical characteristics, like eye colour or height through their genes, but they often expect children’s personalities to resemble their parents’.

Researchers now agree that such a relatively stable ability as intelligence is largely inherited. This is not to say that a highly intelligent child cannot be born to relatively unintelligent parents or that a child’s environment plays no role in intellectual development. But it does appear that we are born with a potential for intelligence that combines with environmental influences to determine adult intelligence levels.

And what about personality traits? Are people born to be shy or extraverted? The answer appears to be a qualified «yes». However mostresearchersagreethatwearebornwithcertainbroaddispositions towardcertaintypesofbehaviour,ratherthanspecificpersonalitytraits. How these general dispositions develop into stable personality traits depends on a complex interplay of one’s genes and the environment, that a person grows up in.

PersonalityresearchersArnoldBussandRobertPlomindeveloped a three-dimension temperament theory. They describe temperament in terms of style (how a response is made) in contrast to content (which response is made). Thus, in understanding temperament it is not so important to know that a person frequently gives speeches in front of large groups. It’s more important to know how he speaks, quickly or slowly; in what manner he speaks, with great emphasis or in a restrained manner. Temperaments are dispositions toward certain types of behaviors. Buss and Plomin identified three behavioral dispositions: 1) activity; 2) emotionality; 3) Sociability.

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Activity refers to the person’s general level of energy output; Emotionality refers to the intensity of one’s emotional reactions; Sociability relates to a person’s general tendency to affiliate and interact with others.

Two questions addressed in Buss and Plomin’s research are: Where do these temperaments come from? And How do they develop into stable personality traits? The answer to the first question is that temperaments are largely inherited. As to the second question, Buss and Plomin argue that the course of the development is influenced by the environment the child grows up in. For example, a highly emotional child has a better chance of becoming an aggressive adult than does one low in this temperament. But parents who encourage problem-solving skills over the expression of anger may turn the highly emotional child into a cooperative, nonaggressive adult.

Thus, according to Buss and Plomin’s model, adult personalities are determined by both inherited temperament and the environment.

Tasks

1. Match the following definitions with the words given below.

a) temperaments;	b) nature;	c) nurture;
d) activity;	e) emotionality;	f) sociability.

1)Genetic inheritance.

2)General behavioral predispositions present from infancy.

3)Intensity of one’ emotional reactions.

4)General level of energy output.

5)Aperson’sgeneraltendencytoaffiliateandinteractwithothers.

6)Environmental conditions and influences.

2. Answer the questions.

1)Where do temperaments come from?

2)How do they developed into stable personality traits?

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III

Understanding Intelligence

Is there more than one type of intelligence?

Defining intelligence has been proven to be a remarkably difficult task. Some psychologists have defined it as the sum total of everything you know, others have defined it as the ability to learn and profit from experience,stillothersdefineitastheabilitytosolveproblems.Ofcourse, there is nothing wrong with any of these definitions of intelligence. The problem is that not one of them alone seems to say it all.

Althoughpsychologistsdonotagreeonasingledefinition,Robert Sternberg’s working definition is accepted by many. He describes intelligence in terms of three characteristics:

- the possession of knowledge;

- the ability to efficiently use that knowledge to reason about the world;

- the ability to use that reasoning adaptively in different environments.

By the possession of knowledge Sternberg means the internal aspects of intelligence, the processes involved in thinking. These include perceiving stimuli, keeping information in working memory, gaining and storing new information, and using problem-solving strategies.

The second aspect of intelligence, says Sternberg, is seen in the relationship between the internal and external world. This aspect of intelligence involves being able to profit from experience and being able to deal with novelty and to make some processes automatic.

Finally, in everyday life intelligence is shown by the ability to adapt to or to shape the environment. Examples include settling a family argument, getting the best price on a car, and explaining your way out of a difficult situation. Measuring this feature is a challenge now being addressed to researchers..

Sternberg’s triarchic theory is important because it extends the concept of intelligence into areas that most psychologists traditionally did not examine. It also emphasizes what intelligence means in everyday life.

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Which contributes more to intelligence, genes or environment?

Years of research have led psychologists to conclude that both hereditary and environmental factors interact to influence mental abilities. The influence of heredity is shown by the high correlation between IQ scores of identical tweens raised in separate households and by the similarity between IQ scores of children adopted at birth and those of their biological parents. The influence of the environment is revealed by the higher correlation of IQ between siblings who share the same environment than between those who do not. So, nature and nurture work together to shape behaviour and mental processes. Some researchers have concluded that the influence of heredity and environment on mental abilities appears to be equal (50/50). Others see a somewhat larger role for heredity (Murray,1994; Plomin et al., 1990).

Tasks

1. Match the aspects of Intelligence (by Sternberg) with what they mean.

1) internal components	a) ability to profit from experience
2) the relationship between the	b) processes involved in thinking
internal and external world
3) external effects	c)abilitytoadapttotheenvironment

2. What is intelligence?What in your view contributes more to intelligence, nature or nurture? Discuss in pairs or small groups.

EMOTION

I

The Nature of Emotion

How do feelings differ from thoughts?

Everyone seems to agree that joy, sorrow, anger, fear, love, and hate are emotions. However, it is often hard to identify the shared features that make these experiences emotions rather than, say, thoughts or impulses.

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Defining Characteristics

Mostpsychologiststendtoseeemotionsasorganizedpsychologi­ cal and physiological reactions to changes in our relationship to the world. These reactions­ are partly subjective experiences and partly objectivelymeasurablepatternsofbehaviorandphysiologicalarousal. The subjective experience of emotion has several characteristics:

1.Emotion is usually temporary. In other words, it tends to have a relatively clear beginning and end and a relatively short duration. Moods, by contrast, tend to last longer.

2.Emotional experience is either positive or negative, pleasant or unpleasant.

3.Emotionalexperienceistriggeredpartlybyamentalassessment of how a situation­ relates to your goals. The same event can bring on very different emotions depending­ on how you interpret what the event means.

4.Emotional experience alters thought processes, often by directing attention toward some things and away from others.

5.Emotional experience elicits an action tendency, a motivation to behave in certain­ ways.

6.Emotional experiences are passions that happen to you, usually without willful intent. However, you can exert some control over emotions since they depend partly on how you interpret situations.

The extent to which we are «victims» of our passions versus rational controllers of our emotions is a central dilemma of human existence.

Objectiveaspectsofemotionincludelearnedandinnateexpressive displays and physiological responses. Expressive displays – such as a smile or a frown – communicate feelings to others. Physiological responses–changesinheartrate,forexample– providethebiological adjustments needed to perform actions generated by the emo­tional experience.

In summary, an emotion is a temporary experience with either positive or negative qualities. Through emotion, people communicate theirinternalstatesandintentionstoothers,butemotionalsofunctions to motivate a person’s thought and action.

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II

Shaver’s Theory of Emotion

How many emotions are there?

Philip Shaver and his colleagues­ (1987) asked students to rate 213 words according to whether or not they could be labeled as emotions. At one extreme, all said that love, anger, and hate were definitely emotions and, at the other extreme, all said that intelligence and carefulness were not. By analyzing the ratings of the words-emotions, Shaver found six clusters which he labeled primary emotions. Three are considered pleasant – love, joy, and surprise – and three are considered unpleasant – anger, sadness, and fear.

Love		Joy		Surprise		Anger		Sadness		Fear
3	7		1		6		5		2

You can see Shaver's emotion hierarchy pictured. He categorized emotions as either pleasant or unpleasant with three primary emotions under each category. Shaver has noted that the six primary emo­tions identified in his study are similar to lists of basic emotions reported by other researchers (Izard, 1977). Shaver further subdivided the six primary emotions into 24 other emotions. For example, love includes affection, lust, and longing.

Try to categorize the emotions listed below according to Shaver’s hierarchy. The number of them in one group is given under the boxes in the scheme above.

Affection;lust;longing;cheerfulness;zest;pride;relief;optimism; contentment; enthrallment; amazement; rage; envy; torment; disgust; irritation; exasperation; shame; suffering; neglect; disappointment; sympathy; horror; nervousness.

Atthispoint,youmayask,«Whatgoodisthisemotionhierarchy?» Shaver and his colleagues explain that the hierarchy represents an

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